The most obscure Nintendo character

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Pappy van Poodle, a character in Nintendo's Rusty's Real Deal Baseball, was so obscure no-one ever uttered its name on the Internet record despite his having an extensive in-game backstory and hand-painted media. That's zero Google or Twitter results—at least as of the publication date of Nick Robsinson's video about Pappy and the game's inventive play mechanics.

Particularly interesting (and tres Nintendo) are the game's use of "light patterns" -- user interface and narrative prompts that encourage the player to haggle with in-game merchants instead of just give Nintendo money:

The Procedurally-Generated Dog Simulator is a fun illustration of pathfinding and cellular automata. All you do is walk around a cave, being followed by a single-pixel pup who is liable to get distracted by treats or scared off by skateboarders. Once I’m bored with it, I’ll be checking out Mudeford, a free dog-walking simulator in […]

Roguelike games (previously) are "a subgenre of role-playing video game characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, tile-based graphics, and permanent death of the player character" (Wikipedia).

Thanks to a “the use of new strategies discovered by a brute-forcing bot,” this computerized speedrun of Arkanoid (on the NES) comes in at 11 minutes and change. To be absolutely clear: this isn’t a computer program playing the game; it’s the hard-coded result of a computer program spending a year of CPU time brute-forcing […]

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If you’re into tools or gadgets, Memorial Day weekend is your Christmas. Take an extra 15% off the final price of these DIY accessories – all of which are already on sale – by entering the promo code WEEKEND15. LUXJET Universal 24-in-1 Magnetic Screwdriver Set & Repair Kit This small but sturdy kit won the […]

If you can build a cloud infrastructure, you can build a business. Companies are overwhelmingly turning to cloud computing to set up or bolster their network, and it’s easy to see why. It allows on-demand access to processing power, a la carte services, and nearly unlimited storage, all without adding extra systems and the maintenance […]